We have found it, the Entrepreneurs Bible! No not really but this is what it would look like if it was ever created. Here are the 20 Great Tips for the budding entrepreneur, taken straight out of the would be Entrepreneurs Bible.

Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:

Quick read and great tips. Don't agree with them all, but the vast majority rock.

Startup Lessons From A Wolf & A Record CompanyPeanut Butter Wolf knows what and supports what he loves - aspiring music and musicians. His startup, Stones Throw Records (https://www.stonesthrow.com ), is the subject of an amazing documentary with many #startups lessons including:

* Be in "it" (business and life) for the right reasons (i.e. LOVE not money). * Walk your talk. * Have courage. * Do the right thing.

The record biz is in turmoil. How anyone can make enough money to survive is the issue and the issue isn't resolved. The web is an amazing thing, but it is a wrecking ball too.

The music biz is one of those buildings he wrecking ball hit hard and we aren't sure what is going to be left. Peanut Butter Wolf and Stones Throw Records don't care about any of that. They care about finding, helping and sharing music they love. And they are going to do that come hell or high water.

The Tao of Marty summarizes the OVER (gain) versus UNDER (loss) philosophy we used to make over $30M in online sales with hundreds of thousands of orders. Want your ecommerce site to make money online? Read and share the Tao of Marty.

Please Note: Waitlist Thanks to our friends at FedEx Curagami’s agency business, our incubation lab where we invest in customers and they invest in us, is currently CLOSED. With 4 active clients we have no room at the Inn. This doesn’t mean we can’t help. We have friends in every aspect of online marketing. Friends …

Gazemetrix has come up with image recognition software, which can detect the contents of the pictures, making it one of the most valuable startups.

Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:

Cool idea. Google analytics vastly undercounts social value, links, traffic and conversion attribution. Images aren hard to distinguish, track and know what kind of images lead to shares, traffic and conversion (may be different for each).

Brand IdealsLearning your company's "brand ideals" may be the most important branding work few startups accomplish. SEO and content take a backseat to widget development for most startups.

Yet isn't the most important question WHERE are the points of connection with potential customers and/or investors? The latter, investors, receive plenty of attention when they are easy. Investors want CONSUMERS and lots of 'em.

So the best way to connect with investors is to connect with consumers and the best way to connect with consumers is to know, articualte and share your "brand ideals":

* Eliciting Joy: Activating experiences of happiness, wonder, and limitless possibility.* Enabling Connection: Enhancing the ability of people to connect with each other and the world in meaningful ways.* Inspiring Exploration: Helping people explore new horizons and new experiences.* Evoking Pride: Giving people increased confidence, strength, security, and vitality.* Impacting Society: Affecting society broadly, including by challenging the status quo and redefining categories.

Those "brand ideals" come from Grow: How Ideals Power Profits At The World's Largest Companies by Jim Stengel and is a must read for any startup entrepreneur who wants investors....after they've won the hearts and minds of consumers.

MeMoSha: Active Women GearMy sister Caroline is starting a new company dedicated to exercise, nutrition and gear tips for active women. But you don't have to be an active woman to help us figure out what great gear to talk about & sell.

Contributors will receive a thank you when we launch and extra special thank you gifts if we use your ideas, so share your favorite gear today: http://bit.ly/share_your_gear

And thanks from the MeMoSha (Metabolism, Movement, Shape) team and my sister Caroline Smith, Founder http://www.MeMoSha.com

Starting a business has its fair share of ebbs and flows - it can be extremely challenging to get a new business off the blocks, and extremely rewarding when everything goes according to plan and y...

Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:

Found this a fascinating read. We thought about hiring a "scrapper" at Curagami. We weren't sure 1. who was reputable (scraping can show up as an attack if you aren't careful) and 2. how to engage those who we could trust to help. This post answers both those questions though some additional research on vendors is probably called for as the post has a salesy point of view.

People Marketing shares hard won tips, ideas and stories about loving, curating, listening to your people to create winning online marketing.

We included this link in our Startups Revoluiton Scoop.it because startups are so WIDGET focused they forget PEOPLE provide the context and emotional connection needed to SELL. It is understandable that YOU love your widget, but your customers love THEMSELVES much more.

Creating "like me" moments mean your "product" becomes a movement your customers want to join. This journey from YOU and THEM (customers) to WE is the most important journey every website and all marketing is on whether the creators know it or not.

Joi Ito's Ted Talk is a must view for web marketers. The shift from invading Russia in the winter to becoming a NOWIST is fundamental, sweeping and a tsunami of change in our thinking, actions and marketing.

No surprise a post I wrote a year ago popped up out of Curagami's long tail today. Great TED Talk video embedded in the post.

Also includes an extensive slide deck from Andreessen & Horowitz proving there is NO Tech Bubble happening now (just looks that way). Great information from airbnb investor Horowitz and valley superstar Marc Andreessen.

Triangle eCommerce Monthly Meetup (Special Guest Marty Smith)

Tuesday, Jun 9, 2015, 6:00 PM

The Frontier800 Park Offices Drive Durham, NC

14 eBusiness people Attending

Triangle eCommerce Group Meetup: We are all set to host our first meetup!
Our first meeting will have three interactive programs:
• Curagami Founder & Former Director of eCommerce Marty Smith shares a short presentation about eCommerce trends.
• Q&A with Marty so bring your SEO, site conversion, which shopping cart to use, mobile & social commerce ...

Healthcare Is About To ExplodeI have a friend, Mary Kay O'Connor founder of Starting Point (http://www.startingpnt.com/site/ ), who is about to jump off the roof. She's been selling, or attempting to sell, into healthcare for several years.

Healthcare isbureaucratic, infected with "Father Knows Best" syndrome, changing rapidly thanks to The Social Patient and ripe for the startup pickings. If your fabric is as TOUGH as my old boss Mary Kay's you may want to look HARD at healthcare since it is about to explode (whether it wants to or not).

Better BeatsBeats headphones look great and sound average. Friends who make Dragons audio cables decided to do an experiment to see if they could improve beats with better cables (theirs). Their cables make $5,000 headphones sound better, now the question was could they make less expensive cans sound great.

Answer: Yes they canFascinating story of "hardwiring" Beats by genius engineers at Moon Audio. Why Did I put this content in our Startups feed? Every startup lives in a place that requires noise cancellation to get any work done at all. Headphones and startups go together like boyhood and dogs :). Marty

The rise of big content is one of Gartner's top 5 emerging trends in digital marketing: "content is the most important thing marketers can do and yet they’re unequipped to take it on from a skills and sourcing level.”

Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:

Great post for startups to read since they can jump right over all the dead and dying stuff and jump right into what matters - creation of sustainable online community with more and more of content coming from THEM (customers and contributors).

Ghann’s Cricket Farm Interview Had a great day in Augusta with Clay Ghann and the team at Ghann’s. Ghann’s has been selling crickets to customers since 1952. How can your business survive over sixty years and span generations? Listen to Clay’s willingness to experiment, change and find great people to help. Thanks to Chris Lawrence …

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.